china's great firewall to express themselves is just getting smaller and smaller. >> selina wang, thank you. news continues tonight with laura coats and allison came around us, right after a short break. you think that we should do something like that for dad?” and she was like “you know what i think that would be actually really cool.” ♪ i figured this is a great holiday present since i won't be with him for christmas. ♪ it was the best gift that i ever received, in my entire life. because it opened up my life. unwrap your family story, with ancestrydna. ♪
home. >> i understand president biden spoke with two sister elizabeth this afternoon. what was that phone call? like >> i have been able to update. >> when was the last time you are able to speak with paul? cnn heard from him. are you able to communicate with him? >> no. i believe that wasn't an official phone call. i haven't spoken to paul since october, 2018. he is only right now allowed to speak to our pa ar he h rituals, things that he does every day to try to survive, things like singing the u.s. national anthem every morning when he gets up. partly i think because he wants to sing in partly because it irritates the guards. he's been doing these things now for four years. it's hard to imagine that he's gonna have to continue to do it and the substantial offer that the u.s. government made that last summer to bring paul and to bring brittany home has built some hope, i think it is crashed down today for pollen is gonna be hard to see him pull that back together. >> do you see a lane for a new negotiation? >> certainly. i think, as joey said, there are americans being wrongfully detained around the world and whether it's pollen russia or brittney in russia, whether it's russia come all imagine syria or kiley and mark seaward in china. each one of those is a separate case, and each one has to be dealt with with its own particular constraints.
officials are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protest. an uprising across china now leading to a task drastic reversal of covid restrictions. but one man in another country can take credit. he helped bring those protests to light to the entire world. we're gonna meet him. a cnn exclusive. next. from liberty mutual!!! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ my active psoriatic arthritis can slow me down. now, skyrizi helps me get going by treating my skin and joints. along with significantly clearer skin, skyrizi helps me move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after two starter doses. skyrizi attaches to and reduces a source of excess inflammation that can lead to skin and joint symptoms. with skyrizi, 90% clearer skin and less joint pain is possible. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to.
>> his parents frequently call him in fear, he says, and the chinese authorities have been harassing them, as well, may he midnight visits to their home in china. what price do you think you have to pay for the work that you do? >> this account is more important in my life. i will not shut it down. i have arranged for someone else to take over if something bad happens to me. i am mentally prepared. even if authorities will let me see my parents. >> authorities in china trying to keep the country in a parallel universe, but li is playing a pivotal role in breaking that bubble. he spends hours a day on the account, only taking breaks to feed his cat, and barely slept during the peak of protests. as he sorted and verified the endless stream of video submissions, each one urgent and historic. he is doing the work that he hopes one day chinese journalists and chinese citizens from within china will be able to do without fear. >> selina wang joins us now from beijing.
in china where the people have risen up in ways you hardly ever see there. the country is finally easing some of its strict covid policies after mass protests swept the nation, lifting >> would cripple side for years. one man can take credit for bringing those protests and information to light, risking his own life by doing so. he spoke exclusively to our selina wang. >> video after video of historic anti zero-covid protests in china broadcast on the world television screens everywhere but inside china, where authorities censored all evidence of the protests. so how did these images managed to get beyond chinese controlled internet? newsrooms around the world, including cnn, have been relying on information from this twitter account. this only one man behind it, lee, a chinese painter in italy whose identity we are hiding for security reasons. [speaking non-english]
sorry, no relevant results are found. meanwhile on he is twitter account he was rapidly uploading videos of demonstrations across china. from various cities, to shanghai, where protesters chanted for xi jinping to step down, calling for freedom and an end to zero covid. and researchers say the chinese government is even trying to bury information about the protests from social media users abroad. search on twitter and chinese characters for cities that had protests and you get this. a flood of spam and porn advertisements. the spam campaign researchers say it appears to be the work of chinese authorities. twitter did not respond to a request for comment. are you worried about your own safety? >> [speaking non-english] >> translator: i get a lot of anonymous harassment saying i know where you are, where you live, and i will kill you.
selina, the authorities crackdown on the protests. we're not see major demonstrations. is still busy with a twitter account? >> yes, anderson, he told me that every day he is still going through hundreds of submissions and spending 6 to 7 hours on the account every day. he's getting messages from people about all sorts of challenges across the country, including the continued covid chaos and restrictions despite the recent easing of rules. he started using twitter as a personal out lap because all of his accounts on chinese social media kept getting banned. he said he never expected to become this influential, and you told me that he hopes that one day he isn't needed anymore, because what he said is that it is sad and ridiculous that we have a painter in italy anomalously collecting footage from brave people in china. but as people in china try to get around censorship, the authorities are cracking down harder. the government recently announced internet users in china could be punished for even liking posts that authorities consider illegal or harmful. so the space for people inside
>> translator: this account maybe assemble the chinese people are still pursuing freedom of speech. this account can document all these historical events that cannot be saved inside the country. >> his account quickly turned into one of the world key sources for protesting formation. li since he received thousands of submissions today is the demonstrations unfolding. apps like twitter, youtube, and instagram are banned in china, but people used virtual private networks, or vpn, which are prohibited in china, to access twitter and send their videos to you li. >> what's the motivation behind all the work you do? >> [speaking non-english] >> translator: it's to let people inside chana china climb out of the fire wall and see what's happening. >> that's exactly what authorities want to prevent. here is what happens if you search for information about any of the protests on chinese social media. you get a notice that says,